Industry welcomes wider focus on packaging study
Australia’s Environment Ministers’ acknowledgement that a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) into national measures to reduce litter will be wider than just beverage containers has been welcomed by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) today.Following the release of an Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) Communiqué, AFGC said it was encouraging that the focus of the RIS was not solely on beverage containers but more broadly about litter reduction and resource recovery.
“Clearly the issue of packaging waste is much broader than beverage containers and the most efficient measures would take a comprehensive view of improving recovery and reducing litter,” AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said.
“While packaging waste is more than food and grocery packaging, Australia’s $102 billion food and grocery manufacturing industry is taking a leadership role in contributing to a comprehensive approach of working with all levels of government to improve recycling and recovery of materials that can be directed to other uses.”
Environment Ministers have also recognised the importance of the cooperative Australian Packaging Covenant (APC). The APC has been successfully operating for the past decade with recycling rates jumping from 39 per cent in 2003 to almost 60 per cent in 2009. The new APC is a partnership agreement between industry, all levels of Government and NGOs to manage Australia’s packaging waste.
